get someone on that before, you know, they destroy mankind.”
“Yes, your highness,” I whisper.
And then he’s gone.
It takes me several minutes to wipe the blood from my face and stumble outside. I go to a river and wash and wash, being certain I’ve removed all traces of blood. When I’m done, I look at my reflection. I need to find Andros’ body. Last time I saw it, Orion had resurrected some kind of shrine to him in their house in the woods. It will take nothing at all to behead him, but then there are the monsters to deal with.
I clear my head as I fly back to the sanctuary. Once there, I speak to the other Elites. I give them a story, that an old ally had warned about the monsters returning from the Underworld. We call a meeting and tell all the gargoyles. There are gasps, tears, and questions. We let them know that the families with children will remain in the sanctuary, but that we will send the others on quests.
There’s excitement in the younger Brotherhoods.
I have one of my oldest and most experienced groups stay behind after the others. The men are rarely in the sanctuary, and it had been agreed upon a long time ago by the Elites that they were too dangerous to send on any missions, but now we need them. My gaze roams over the two men.
“You need to wake up your brother.”
Rokad’s dark eyes flash with an unnamed emotion. “I thought you said awakening him was too dangerous.”
“He’s too dangerous for the sanctuary, but we’ll turn him loose on the monsters.”
Rokad nods, and I truly can’t tell what he thinks. The half-breed gargoyles are always hard to read. A normal gargoyle would want his brother awakened from the curse we’d placed on him, but these men aren’t normal. They are evil. Dark and twisted. And I want them far from us, but know enough to know that they are useful right now.
“And what about the phoenix prisoner? Should we bring him?” Lucas asks, his tone even, his gaze locked somewhere above my head.
These two had been tasked with keeping our prisoner in his cage in a remote location for years and years, since the bastard has a way of escaping without constant monitoring. I can’t afford to waste gargoyles to stand and watch him any longer. It might’ve been easier to kill him, but I have an idea.
“Tell him if he fights beside you, he’ll earn his freedom.”
“That’s...generous of you,” Lucas says, again not looking at me.
I wave a hand. “If his use ends, or if he’s more a burden then a help, kill him.”
After a second, Lucas says, “Understood.”
“Now, get out.”
The damned half-breeds leave, and I rub my face. This isn’t how my rule was supposed to go. I’m supposed to rest and enjoy being in charge. I’m not supposed to try to keep old secrets buried, nor unleash those half-breeds on the world. I truly don’t know if they will help or hurt the situation. Because even though I’d told the Elites that they were simply unstable after so many times waking and falling back into their stone slumbers, I’m the only one who knows the truth.
A dark, horrible truth.
Lucas, Rokad, and Narath are not just unstable gargoyles. They are the children of my daughter...and a monster. Triplets. Nothing should have ended her life, but birthing them into this world did. It was a long time ago, before the sanctuary. My daughter had been made, and we had guarded our lands together. She never told me what had led to her impregnation, but I suspected who the father was.
And when the children grew wild and dangerous, there was no dying their parentage. I had sent them far away. I had them slumber on lands I hoped they would never wake from, but eventually, they did. By the time the sanctuary existed, it became one of roles to keep them far from here, and their parentage a secret.
I have been successful, up until now. But not only am I turning them out on the world, I’m awakening their brother. A psychotic killer who lusts for blood and death.
“Was that wise?” Elizabeth suddenly asks from beside me.
Her voice startles me. I turn in her direction and realize the other Elites are all talking in worried voices amongst themselves, but Elizabeth? I’m fairly certain she has been watching me for a while. I’m also fairly certain she’s the reason the freaks had